Gravity-sander for front and rear drive-wheels for locomotives.



E. A. RIVES & H. B.- NABO RS. GRAVITY SANDER FOB, FRONT AND REAR DRIVE WHEELS FOR LOCOMOTIVES.

APPLICATION FILED DBO. 10, 1913. 1,1 1 6,925., Patented Nov. 10, 1914.

2 sHm:

1 TH NORRIS PETERS CO, PHbm-LITHQ. WASHINGTON, u C.

E. A. RIVES & H. B. NABORS. GRAVITY SANDER FOB. FRONT AND REAR DRIVE WHEELS FOR LOCOMOTIVES.

APPLICATION FILED DEOLIO, 191a.

Patented Nov. 10, 1914.

2 SHEETS-SHEETZ.

THE NORRIS PETERS C0,. PHOTO-LITHOJWASHINGTDN. D. C.

enAvrrY-sANfEn Fon FRONT AND REAR nnivnwnnnrs ron'ro'ooivro rivns,

Specification of Letters Patent. v

TaaM wiwm it may concern: i

Be it"known that we, EDWIN A. RIVES and HARRISON B. NABORS, citizens, of the United States, residing at Greensboro, in the county of Guilford and State of North 'Carolina, have invented certainnew and being the provision of a gravity sanderv for supplying sand tov either the front or rear drive wheels, or both, of locomotives such as are now in the process of construction, the present device not being applicable to locomotives as now built without slight modi-,

fication. v

Fluid actuated sanders,part icularly those operated by an air blast,are in common use at the present time but are objectionable,

I due to the fact that the air passing with the points,

sand through the pipes leadingto the rails passes with such force as to blow the sand from the rails over the track instead of applying it economically on the rails. Further the blast of mixed air and sand pass ing through the controlling valves and pipes rapidlyscours out. the valve casings and other connections, necessitating frequent renewal of parts.

vOur present lnvention therefore comprehends the provision of a sander in which the sand is delivered to the rails immediately adjacent the drive wheels of the locomotive by gravity alone, thereby avoiding unnecessary waste of sand and wearing of expensive parts of the'device.

A further object of our invention is tov provide a sander which, while particularly adapted for .use on locomotives, may be employed with equallygood results on street orrailway cars. .1 i

' A further object of our invention is to rovide means including a manually controlled valve for regulating the supply of sand to the rails, either in advance of the forward drive wheels of the locomotive, at the rear of the rear drive wheels, or at both in order that sand may be properly applied, irrespective of the direction of movement of the locomotive.

Application 'filedDecember10,1913. Serial No. 805,805.

tially equal quantities to the drive wheels upon both sides of'the locomotive, that is,

to bothrails-of the track. And a'still fur ther objectj-of our invention is .to so 'construct the valve controllingthe flow of sand: that the valveitself-forms a sandtrap to.

prevent undue: flow of sand from the sand p dome, the movement of the valve being posi-f tively limited: in order that it may at no time becomeinoperative. f 1th these and other objects in view, our

invention will be more fully-described, illuse trated inlthe accompanyingdrawings, and then specifically pointed outEin'i the claims sand dome and controlling valve; Fig.3.is I

a vertical sectional viewtakenon the line 3-3 of Fig. 2,showing.furtheridetails of" valve construction; Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the valve removed from. its casing; Fig. 5 is adetail sectionalview.ontheline 55 of Fig. 2, showing the'manner in which the sand passing from' the valve is divided and supplied to both rails of the track; Figs. 6 and 7 arev sectional views illustrating'the two open positionsof the valve, the valve. in Fig. 6 being opened to discharge'sand to therear drive wheels, while.

that in Fig. 7- isopened to discharge sand to the forward drive. wheels.

. Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the following description and indicated in all the views of the dra'wings by the same reference characters. a

In order to insure clear and accurate} understandingpof'our lnvention we have illustrated the same in connection with a conventional form of locomotive 10 having forward and rear drive wheels 11 and 12,respectively, and an engineers' cab'13.

The object of our presentinvention is to provide a sand may track either immediately in advance of the P s m. 10, 1914. 1

still further object of our invention j I to so construct the valve that sand will be delivered simultaneously, and in substan which are attached to and-form a part of; this application, In the drawings :Figure 1 is aside'ele vation of a conventional locomotive,show

gravity sander by means of WhlQhf a be supplied to the 'rails 1d of the I drive wheels 11 or immediately at the rear TE T; orricr. I -Enw i{mv 1v-D rinnrusoiv is; .imroiis, orennnnsnono, se m CAROLINAL 'nssrelvons or. o vn IGn-rrr To H ENBYL'. HICKS, or ennmvssono; NORTH cnnog of thedrive wheels 12. With this object in I view, we provide the locomotive with a sand dome of the usual type with the exception that its transverse partition or false bottom 16 is further spaced from the boiler 17 of the locomotive, to which the sand dome is secured by rivets or other suitable fastening devices 18, than is customary.

This bottom 16 may be formed integrally withthe sand dome or as a separate part thereof as preferred. If the latteris the case, it will be supported in place upon suit-' able brackets 19 carried by the body' portion of the dome.

Thebottom of the sand dome is spaced a considerable distance above the boiler, as

, reviousl 7 ex lained' in order to rovide room in the base of the dome for the valve 1 andits casing, indicated as a whole by the numeral 20. 7 Sand; issupplied to the valvefrom the dome by a pipe 21 leading through the central part of the bottom 16 of the dome into the valve casing. The valvecasing includes a substantially cylindrical shaped body portion 22closed at one side and a substantially circular face plate 23 adapted to close the opposite side, the body 22 and face plate 23 being provided with registering ears 24: perforated to receive bolts or other suitable fastening devices25 by means of which the face plate of the casing maybe secured in place. This casing is provided at its upper end with-an opening v26 through. which the pipe 21 leads, the

lower end of the pipe extending somewhat" below the center of the casing. The casing, at its lower end, is provided with forwardly and rearwardly directed, radial extensions 2-7 and 28, respectively, and the face plate is similarly provided with extended portions to close such extensions. Each of the extensions is divided longitudinally at its outer end by an intermediately formed partition wall 29 and the casing and its face plate are both provided .at points opposite .these p'ar-' titions with openings 30. from the openings of the extension 27 on Pipes 31 lead opposite sides of the locomotive to points immediately in advance of the forward drive wheels of the locomotive and above the rails 14 of the track. In like manner, pipes 32 lead from, the openings ofthe extension 28 of the casing to points immediately at the rear of the rearward drive wheels and im-l mediately above the rails 14:. It will therefore, be seenthat if sand? is permitted to flow from the upper portion of the sand dome through the pipe21, and valve casing to the extension27, such flow of, sand will.

be divided by the-partition wall 29 and will pass in equal quantities through the pipes 31 to the tracks in advance of the forward drive wheels of the locomotive. In like manner, if the flow of sand ,is so regulated as to pass into the extension 28 of thecasing,

it will there be divided and fall by gravity onto the railsinnnediately behind the rear drive wheels 12. c One of the'primary objects of our invention is the provision of "an oscillatory valve mounted in the valve casing and not only controlling the flow of sand through the pipe 21, but also selectively controllingits disehargethrough the pipes 31 or 32, as desired. Referring-more specifically to Fig. 4 of the drawingsyitwill be seen that this valve which, as a whole is indicated by the numeral 33, includes a hollow, substantially cylindrical body member adapted to seat closely within the valve casing. This valve includes side portions 3 1 spaced from each other and maintained in proper relation by an integrally formed web or bottom portion 35 which connects the lower peripheral edges of the side portions. The radius of curvature of the upper edges of the side portions of the valve is substantially that of the valve casing, while the radius of curvature "of: theloweredges of said side portions is somewhat less, for a reason which will be hereinafter explained. The bottom portion connects those edges havin least radius of curvature and extends throughout a little more than 180 of the entire circumference 'of'the side portions having radially direct- ;ed extensions or stop shoulders 86 at its up per ends projecting flush with the adjacent ends of the upper edge portions of the sides 3 h In effect, the valve is substantially a fcylindrical' pocket open throughout a little less than one-half of its peripheral edge and so'form'ed asto provide the extensions or stop shoulders 36. In order to properly supportthe valve in place'in the casing, that portion of. the bottom of the casing between its extensions'27 and-28 is thickened interiorly as shown at '37 to bear against .the bottom of the valve 33' and provide spaced valve engaging abutments. It will, therefore, be clear that upon oscillatory movement of-the valve'in either direction, one of its stopshoulders36 will engage against .the thickened portion of the valve casing to limit further turning movement of the valve. Such limiting of valve movement is clearly illustrated inFigs. 6 and 7 and any further description is therefore unnecessary. It will of course be understood that the pipe 21 extends between the-side portions ofthe valve or pocket and inasmuch'as the lower end of said pipe is somewhat below the center, of the valve casing, whilethe upper edges of the bottom portion 36 of the valve or pocket are somewhat above the center of the valve casing, the valve, when in normal position, as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings, will form a pocket or sand Jil trap for the reception of sand from the main portion of the sand dome. Further more, the sand in this pocket or trap will sand to the rails of the track, we provide;

efiectually seal the lower-endpf the pipe 21 and prevent further flowofsand until the valve has been oscillated topermit discharge of itscontents. a c

In order .to provide meansflfor manually oscillating the valve to control the flow of v the valve witha valve stem or. shaft 38 which extends through an opening, 39 formed centrally of the face plate, 33 of the valve casing and which is firml'yflsecured at its inner end to the central part of one of the sides 34; of the valve. A lever arm l0 is operatively connected tothe outer end of this valve stem in such a manner as to preferably extend in vertical position when the valve is closed, that is, in the position shown in Fig. 2. A hand lever 41 is swing inglymounted at one end at anyconvenient point in the .cab 13 of. the locomotive and a connecting rod 42 joins the intermediate portion of tnis hand lever with the freeend of the valve stem lever l0.

From the foregoing description, the operation of our improved gravity sander will be readily understood and but slight explanation is therefore necessary. In use, the upper portion of'the sand dome 15 is tilled with sand in the usual manner and a certain quantity of this V sand immediately passes though the pipe 21 to fillthe valve pocket 33. When it is" desirable to sand the rails immediately in advance of the forward drive wheels 11 of the locomotive, the en Y gineer or fireman swings the hand lever l1 forwardly as far as possible. This movement of the hand lever 41 acts through the connecting rod 42 and valve stem lever40' track rails. As soon as the sand commences to flow from the pocket or valve, the sand seal or trap is broken and sand will at once @begin to flow from the sand dome through the pipe 21 for which reason a continuous flow of sand to-the rails may bemaintained,

ifdesired, until all sand contained in the dome hasbeen discharged. As soon as sufficient sand has been applied, the hand lever 41 is swung baclrto normal position to close the valve. Upon closing of the valve,

sand continues to flow from the sand dome into the valve or pocket until such flow is stopped by filling of the pocket and sealing of the lower end of the pipe 21.

The operation in supplying sand to the rails immediately at the rear of the rear drive wheels 12 is identical with that above described with the exception of the fact that j the hand lever tl is,.of course, swung inthe opposite direction. to ireversely turn the valve and permit dischargeof its contents into the extension 28- of the valve casing. sFrom the foregoing de'scription,it will be apparent that we have provided an improved form of gravity sander which is economical in construction, readily insta'lledand durable and efiective in action.

It-will of course be understood that we do of construction illustrated in the drawings and described in the Specification, as various minor changes, within the-scope of the appended claims, may be made at anytime, without inthe slightest degree departing from the spirit of our invention.

Mi Having thus described the nvention,"

what isclaimed as new is:,

L'Agravity sander lncluding a valvecasnot wi'shyto be limited to the specific details ing'havingan inletand two branched out-'1 let ports, and an oscillatory .valve. in the 0 casing movable to establish communication between the inlet and either outlet'port.

2. A gravity sander including a valve outlet ports, pipes leading from the branches of the outlet ports, :.and ELEVFLlVe.

mounted in the casing movable to e stablish communication between the inlet port and either outlet port. i t 3. In a gravity'sander, the combination witha sand dome having a bottom, 0f a valve" casing positioned below thebottom and having spaced outlet ports, communieating means extending through the bottom of the sand dome and into the valve casing, and an oscillatory valve mounted in the valve casing and movable to permit flow through either outlet port.

casing; having an inlet and two branched 4. In a gravity sander,the combination with a sand dome having a bottom, ofa" valve casing mounted below the bottom of the dome, said valve casing'being provided with branched outlet ports, a valve mounted for oscillatory movement in the valve casing to permit selective discharge through either port, and a pipe leading from the minating within the valve.

sand dome into the valve casing and ter- 5. In a gravity sander, the combination with a sand dome havingca bottom, of a valve casing mountedbelow the bottom of the dome, said valve casing being provided with branched outlet ports, a valve mounted for oscillatory movement in the valve casing to permit selective discharge through either port, and a pipe leading from the sand dome into the valve casing and terminating within; the valve, said valve 'in normal position forming a trap limiting the flow of sand from thesand dome.

6. gravity sander including a substan-' tially cylindricalvalve casing provided with spaced ported extensions,-a substantially at the top, stop shoulders formed upon the valve at the lower edges of said opening and adapted to engage the abutments to limit turning of the valve, and a supply pipe extending into the valve casing and between the side portions of the valve.

8. Agravity sander including a substantially cylindrical casing provided with.

spacedoutlet ports and ,abutments adjacent the ports", a hollow cylindrical valve mounted for turning movement within the casing and including spaced side members and a bottom member, the valve being open at the top, stop shoulders formed upon thevalve at the lower edges of said opening and adapted to engage the abutments to limit turning of the valve, and a supply pipe extending into the valve casing and betweenthe side portions of the valve, said pipe extending below the lower edges ofthe valve opening when the valve is in nor- EDWIN A. RIVES. 1,. 8.] HARRISON B- NABORS. L1 5.

itnesses: I

L. ALEXANDER, 'A. J. CRAWFORD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents i 4 Washington, D. C. 

